About Varnish

VarnishJournal is an online publication that seeks to meet the divide between literature and art, highlighting work with raw yet polished merit. Varnish wants your best work: poetry, fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, art, visual poetry, or work that pushes boundaries. Varnish also appreciates traditional, well-crafted work of literary and artistic value.

Varnish – noun – var·nish \ˈvär-nish\

a : a liquid preparation that when applied to a surface dries to form a hard lustrous typically transparent coating

b : the covering or glaze given by the application of varnish (1) : something that suggests varnish by its gloss (2) : a coating (as of deposits in an internal combustion engine)

Varnish publishes cutting edge literature and art. We want work with meaning—work that goes deeper than the words or paint. We want your medium, arts and/or letters, to be the tip of the iceberg. We want to be taken into the depths of feeling. Let your words and art shine. Take us on a journey.

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Varnish, based in Los Angeles, was established in August 2017 as the collaborative effort between Nathan Elias and Alexi Milano. Both advocates of art and literature, they created this journal as a means to showcase the polished creative works of others. Varnish is published biannually.

Alexi Milano is a writer, illustrator, painter, and educator in Los Angeles, CA. Her poetry has appeared in Red Fez, In Between Hangovers, Poppy Road, Founder’s Favourites and Black Poppy Review and is forthcoming in Poems For All.